Okay, I’m curious to see how YOU would plan our trip. So here’s the information to consider:
Staying in Florida 11 nights/10 days - we arrive June 24th, leave July 5th. We are driving (27 hours) to get to Florida and will be arriving around suppertime on the 24th, so our first full day (25th) we would like to be able to sleep in, maybe head into parks around 11 or 12. We are staying off-site, 7-8 miles from WDW gates. We are traveling with my in-laws and our two children ages 8 & 5. Oldest has Sensory Processing Disorder and youngest has Autism (high-functioning) with bowel disorder (still in Pull Ups due to loss of control). Children are both early risers and do not do well with late nights, so we really need to keep late nights to a minimum. Ideally, we want to be eating supper at our house each night around 6:30, to keep costs down and to be able to give the kids some unwinding time, but that doesn’t have to be every night, as long as we’re back at the house by 8 or so, for bedtime. We want to keep the park days between June 25-July 2, so 8 days available. We need down time so in those 8 days we need at least one entire day that is not at a park, and some other half days at the very least. We do not have park hoppers. We are open to a morning at Blizzard Beach. We want to see Wishes & MSEP, would like to see FOF if possible. Would like to see Fantasmic. Do not care about IllumiNations. We want to do each park at least once, and especially want to explore World Showcase at Epcot. We also 100% want to do a 4:00 show of HDDR. So that’s a must. We have one day that is 100% set in stone - July 1st HAS to be at MK, at least in the evening, because we have BBB at 5:00 and CRT at 6:50 with A&E FP+ at 6:00. We will have DAS for both children.
So… tell me what you think!
I can’t really speak to special needs children, so I can give very generic ideas. I would plan for 2 days each at MK and EP, 1 day each for the other two parks, one day for BB, and one day completely off. If the thrill rides are not appropriate for your kids, a half day at DHS would probably be enough to look around and see the shows (and do TSMM). Likewise, if you are not interested in the thrill rides, AK could also be a half day (although the shows are all excellent and it will take most of a day to fit all three in).
As for specific parks on specific days, you will have to pull up the calendar and check hours. As you will be staying offsite, AVOID any park with AM EMH; I don’t recommend parks with PM EMH either. Without looking at the calendar, this might work:
25th - Sleep-in with DHS afternoon and evening, including Fantasmic (you will NOT be home by 8:00 PM).
26th - MK RD until tired - watch FoF parade
27th - BB in the AM; HDDR in the PM
28th - EP RD until tired
29th - Day off
30th - AK RD until tired (could do HDDR here instead)
1st - MK Afternoon and evening see MSEP and Wishes (You will NOT be home by 8:00 PM)
2nd - EP Decide how much time you need - or leave “unplanned” an go back to whichever park the kids want to see again)
With this you have two “full” touring days (one MK and one EP), with the others being partial touring days. Fantasmic will get you home later than 8:00, so making RD the next day might be a bit rough, but you really do need an RD at MK. Wishes will be a late night on the 1st, so you may want to use the 2nd as a sleep-in day.
Some might recommend that on the two “full” days that you may want to take a mid-day break., but preferring to leave by 6:00 makes for a relatively short day, and taking 2-3 hours out of the middle would not be the best use of your limited time.
Be prepared that with this schedule there will be many things that you will not have time for; MK and EP really need 2 full days to completely explore, and AK and DHS really need full days. But I fully understand that that would just be too much for your kids. You’ll just have to carefully select which attractions that you want to see and not try to overcrowd your schedule.
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Thank you. No, they are definitely not thrill ride kids at all. Or anything that is very loud, dark/scary etc… Honestly, for AK, we’re just going for the safari, the water ride and the trails. Would like to see the bird show and Lion King.
At HS… basically just TSMM and then shows, main ones being Frozen, Indiana Jones and Fantasmic. I’m thinking even just an evening there, if we went in around 5?
At MK, they’ll do/love pretty well everything except Space and Stitch.
At Epcot, oh, sooo much there that they’ll like, lol.
Your oldest will love the perry interactive scavenger hunt at worls showcase I bet. It is a great way to explore the countries. Epcot has been my asd kid’s fave park since he was 3. Do soarin for sure.
We did trips like this, staying at Windsor hills with a pool when he was younger. Great times.
Blizzard beach is a must. Go at opening bc no DAS accommodation there.
We found our best days were going at opening to a non EMH park and leaving at 2. You’ll have a blast.
And don’t kill yourself trying to do HS. Tsmm is awesome, but it is not a lot to do there for our kids. I’d go to epcot or ak any day over burning a ticket there.
Yeah, I was considering skipping HS, as really there’s only one ride there that they’ll do. The rest is shows. Animation Academy will be great for my son IF he can get into the first showing. But there’s no way he/we are going to stand in line for 30-60 minutes waiting for it. I admit most of the shows would appeal to them, and they really want to do Indiana Jones, Frozen Sing a Long, and Fantasmic. But… how many shows can you do in a day before you just get plain tired of sitting and seeing shows? Especially with a very active 5 year old with ASD? We have done live shows before (things like Dora! and Max & Ruby) and she made it through them - but only with being allowed to move - climbing from her seat to my seat to her dad’s seat to standing and dancing in the aisle etc…
I’m toying with the idea of maybe just going into HS for maybe a few hours after supper one evening, maybe even on one of our off days. That way we can do the big 3 that I know they’ll enjoy.
Epcot, I’m really looking forward to. I know we’ll need two full days there, for sure. I’m not sure if we should split it into one day for rides the other for the WS, or if we should do an east/west thing - do half the rides and WS one day, the other half the next. Is one way better over the other?
My son 8, is REALLY looking forward to Epcot and AK the most I think. He loves countries and cultures and has this fascination with China, so I imagine we’ll be easily an hour exploring just China. Anything that can be done there, he will do it, LOL. I know we want to see several shows too - Mariachi Cobre in Mexico, the acrobats in China, Matsuriza in Japan. The kids will love the trains in Germany. Both kids love to color and do crafts, so they’re looking forward to the KidKot stations.
The where’s my perry interactive phone game in world showcase is truly fun. Also wilderness explorers in ak.